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Noam Chomsky Quotes - Page 33

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The old-fashioned idea is that responsibility falls upon those who borrow and lend. Money was not borrowed by campesinos, assembly plant workers, or slum-dwellers. The mass of the population gained little from

The old-fashioned idea is that responsibility falls upon those who borrow and lend. Money was not borrowed by campesinos, assembly plant workers, or slum-dwellers. The mass of the population gained little from borrowing, indeed often suffered grievously from its effects.

Fall, Responsibility, Ideas

"The people always pay". www.theguardian.com. January 21, 1999.

As far as U.S. intelligence knows, Iran is developing nuclear capacities, but they don't know if they are trying to develop nuclear weapons or not. Chances are they're developing what's called 'nuclear capability,' which many states have. That is the ability to have nuclear weapons if they decide to do it. That's not a crime.

Iran, Trying, Nuclear

"Noam Chomsky: Talking About Iran Sanctions Is ‘Surreal’" by Andrew Perez, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 23, 2014.

The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.

Intellectual, Floating, May

Institute Professor Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky (2010). “American Power and the New Mandarins”, p.3, ReadHowYouWant.com

Anyone can be a moral individual, concerned with human rights and problems; but only a college professor, a trained expert, can solve technical problems by 'sophisticated' methods. Ergo, it is only problems of the latter sort that are important or real.

Real, College, Rights

Noam Chomsky (2010). “The Chomsky Reader”, p.70, Pantheon

Evaluating countries is senseless and I would never put things in those terms, but that some of America's advances, particularly in the area of free speech, that have been achieved by centuries of popular struggle, are to be admired.

Country, Struggle, America

"Question time" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. November 30, 2003.

I choose to live in what I think is the greatest country in the world, which is committing horrendous terrorist acts and should stop.

Country, Thinking, World

"American Morning" With Paula Zahn, Interview with Bill Bennett, edition.cnn.com. May 30, 2002.

In the United States, the political system is a very marginal affair. There are two parties, so-called, but they're really factions of the same party, the Business Party.

Party, Two, Political

Interview with Adam Jones, adamjones.freeservers.com. February 20, 1990.

Science talks about very simple things, and asks hard questions about them. As soon as things become too complex, science can't deal with them... But it's a complicated matter: Science studies what's at the edge of understanding, and what's at the edge of understanding is usually fairly simple. And it rarely reaches human affairs. Human affairs are way too complicated.

Simple, Understanding, Matter

"Science in the Dock". Discussion with Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Krauss & Sean M. Carroll in "Science & Technology News", chomsky.info. March 1, 2006.

Thomas Jefferson, the leading Enlightenment figure in the United States, along with Benjamin Franklin, who took exactly the same view, argued that dependence will lead to "subservience and venality", and will "suffocate the germs of virtue". And remember, by dependence he meant wage labor, which was considered an abomination under classical liberal principles.

Views, Enlightenment, Principles

"Education and Democracy". Talk at Michigan State University, March 28, 1995.

The crime of liberation theology was that it takes the Gospels seriously. That's unacceptable. The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you take a look at them . . . Liberation theology, in Brazil particularly, brought the actual Gospel to peasants. They said, let's read what the Gospels say, and try to act on the principles they describe. That was the major crime that set off the Reagan wars of terror.

War, Trying, Principles

To achieve respectability, to be admitted to the debate, they must accept without question or inquiry the fundamental doctrine that the state is benevolent, governed by the loftiest intentions, adopting a defensive stance, not an actor in world affairs but only reacting to the crimes of others...If even the harshest of critics tacitly adopt these premises, then the ordinary person may ask, who am I to disagree?

Ordinary, Doctrine, Inquiry

. . . among all grammars meeting this condition (of adequacy), we select the simplest.

Adequacy, Select, Grammar

With the development of industrial capitalism, a new and unanticipated system of injustice, it is libertarian socialism that has preserved and extended the radical humanist message of the Enlightenment and the classical liberal ideals that were perverted into an ideology to sustain the emerging social order.

Order, Enlightenment, Development

Noam Chomsky (2013). “The Essential Chomsky”, p.114, The New Press

Libertarian socialism is properly to be regarded as the inheritor of the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment.

Enlightenment, Libertarian, Socialism

Noam Chomsky (2013). “The Essential Chomsky”, p.115, The New Press

If you ask the CEO of some major corporation what he does, he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving 20 hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees.

Honesty, Creating, Corporations

"Question time" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. November 30, 2003.

Chemistry, until my childhood, not that long ago, was regarded as a calculating device. Because you couldn't reduce to physics. So it's just some way of calculating the result of experiments. The Bohr atom was treated that way.

Long Ago, Childhood, Way

"Noam Chomsky on Where Artificial Intelligence Went Wrong". Interview with Yarden Katz, www.theatlantic.com. November 1, 2012.

WikiLeaks is a service to the population. Assange should get an award for - presidential medal of honor.

Awards, Presidential, Honor

If a child from an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe comes to Boston, is raised in Boston, that child will be indistinguishable in language capacities from my children growing up here, and vice versa.

Children, Growing Up, Boston

Some of the most moving experiences I've had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights.

Moving, Struggle, Rights

"Noam Chomsky on Love: 'Life's Empty Without It'". Big think Interview, bigthink.com. August 18, 2009.

The social and physical construction of suburban America really was quite complex. It was a very elaborate system, and clearly a massive social engineering project that has changed U.S. society enormously.

Engineering, America, Construction

From the late 1940s, into and through the '50s, there developed a complex interaction between federal government, state and local government, real-estate interests, commercial interests and court decisions, which had the effect of undermining the mass transit system across the country.

Country, Real, Government

As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world.

War, Government, Self

To summarize, draft resistance can make use of the inegalitarian nature of American society as a technique for increasing the cost of American aggression, and it threatens values that are important to those in a decision-making position.

Decision, Important, Technique

Institute Professor Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky (2010). “American Power and the New Mandarins”, p.493, ReadHowYouWant.com

Right after 9-11, as far as I know, one newspaper in the United States had the integrity to investigate opinion in the Muslim world: the 'Wall Street Journal.'

Wall, Integrity, United States

"Civilization versus Barbarism?". Interview with M. Junaid Alam, chomsky.info. December 17, 2004.

Those who had demanded no more than an end to the bombing of North Vietnam and a commitment to negotiations saw their demands being realized, and lapsed into silence.

Commitment, Silence, Being Real

Noam Chomsky (2004). “At War with Asia”, p.62, AK Press

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